Julia Larson, the cook, and Edward Joseph Mahoney, one of the coachmen of
Woodcrest Estate, met while they were employed by the James W. Paul, Jr.
family of Radnor and
Philadelphia. They were married June 4,
1903.

Julia left her homeland of Sweden
in 1896 at age 19. She had worked as a cook for a year in Karlstad
so that she would have a trade. Julia came to America
on her own, leaving a brother, two sisters and both parents in Sweden. Her
good friend, Wilhelmina Anderson, traveled with her to
Philadelphia
and accompanied her many times back to Sweden.

Edward emigrated from Listowel,
Ireland
with his widowed mother and brother at the age of nine, arriving at the port
of New York at Castle Garden in 1886. They traveled, then, to Troy, New
York to join older brothers who had arrived a few years earlier. Edward
worked a short time as a steelworker in a Troy foundry, leaving for
Philadelphia
a few years later.

Coachman
Edward J. Mahoney is seated at the viewer's far left. The surrounding area is the
stable and its courtyard of Woodcrest Estate.

As well
as stalls for horses, the stable building contained coachmen's and grooms' quarters,
other servants' apartments, and a carriage house. the large round towers served as the
stable's ventilation shafts.

This original stable was
roughly u-shaped and surrounded a courtyard, closed in by a wall on the side
toward the mansion. The wall was removed and in 1989 the courtyard was
enclosed to form an atrium. Now Grace Hall, it houses offices and meeting
rooms.

Both
views of the stable are of the side facing the mansion.

Informational Sources:

Buzbee, J.
(1984, June/July). Cabrini College - a work of art. Brandywine,
p.9-11

John
Milner Associates. (1995). Historical documentation of the James W.
Paul, Jr. estate